Aims[edit]
By doing this workshop, you will:
- learn about the 16th century theatre, and its relationship with present-day practices
- learn how staging techniques play a major role in a theatre play
- have an opportunity to reflect on theatre, dramaturgy and scenic space
Key Information[edit]
| Number of learners | Groups of 3 students. Several groups can work on different parts of the dialogues, or each do their own staging. Optionally, other students can be involved in set and costume design and making. |
| Number of staff | One teacher |
| ECTS Credits (if applicable) | 3 credits |
Learning process[edit]
| Lecture/seminar | Lecture, presentation, discussion (face-to-face or online) | |
| Making project | Making a model, mock-up, plan or design (physical or digital) | |
| X | Performance project | Making a performance or demonstration (live or mediated) |
| Records and Archives | Interviews, photographs and videos of artefacts, annotating archives, creating learning materials (physical or digital) | |
| Independent study | Reading, researching, analysing and evaluating learning materials (physical or digital) in groups or alone |
Type of learner[edit]
| Student of technical theatre | |
| X | Student of theatre design, architecture |
| X | Student of theatre arts |
| Professional | |
| Researcher | |
| X | General public |
What You Will Need[edit]
Duration and schedule[edit]
The schedule is flexible. The workshop can be done as an intensive activity over 1-2 weeks, or as 10-15 weekly sessions with two hours for the learners to prepare and one hour rehearsal and feedback with the teacher.
Depending on the complexity of the staging chosen, you will need 1-3 days in the theatre.
The workshop can be shortened by staging only a part of the de’ Sommi dialogues.
Room or type of space[edit]
Preparation can take place in a classroom. Ideally, performance takes place in a theatre.
Equipment[edit]
Basic theatre equipment for the theatre play (lighting, sound, seats, stage).
Materials (consumables)[edit]
Some elements to build a simple scenography and costumes.
Learning resources (books, websites)[edit]
Canonbase articles:
- Leone de' Sommi
- Quatro Dialoghi in materia di rapresentazioni sceniche
- Dialogues on Staging – an example staging of the dialogues by students at RESAD.
- Workshop to build a scenography for de’ Sommi’s dialogues
Pavesi, Giorgio. Leone De' Sommi hebreo e il teatro della modernità, Asola, Gilgamesh Edizioni 2015
Leone de’ Sommi. Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche, Milano Il Polifilo 1968
Leone de' Sommi. Teatro, nota introduttiva e cura di Daniele Lucchini, Mantova Finisterrae 2014
Process[edit]
Preparation[edit]
Gather some resources about the de’ Sommi dialogues and Italian Renaissance theatre, and prepare a short presentation to introduce the topic to the students.
Make sure you have the resources necessary for the staging at the end of the project.
The learning activity[edit]
Give a presentation to the students introducing Italian Renaissance theatre, de’ Sommi and the dialogues.
Students then research, read and rehearse a performance of each dialogue. At regular points during the process, watch the rehearsals and give feedback.
At the same time as the rehearsal process, students develop their ideas for the staging of the dialogues, and prepare lighting, sound, scenery, costumes accordingly.
The final part of the workshop is to stage the dialogues in the theatre.
Assessment and feedback[edit]
The performance can be directly assessed in terms of students’ understanding of the matters discussed in the dialogues, together with a discussion and Q&A session afterwards. Alternatively, students can be asked to write or present a reflection on their experience and learning.
If the dialogues are performed to an audience, their feedback can be an important part of the students’ learning.
Our Experience[edit]
Tips[edit]
The workshop can be expanded or reduced in time, and in the scale of the production at the end, according to your needs and available resources.
The final performance can be given to other students and staff, as well as friends and family, if desired. It would also make a good centrepiece for a one-day symposium on Renaissance theatre or technical theatre history.
Additional information and resources[edit]
See also the teaching methodology for constructing a scenography for the de' Sommi dialogues.
This methodology has been used in the Canon project to develop a Teaching Tool - see the project Dialogues on Staging by staff and students at RESAD. Rosa Fernández Cruz directed the RESAD performance, and offers the following notes:
A comprehensive reading of the text was carried out, as well as an analysis of it, establishing relations with the culture and art of its contemporaneity. The dramaturgical and staging proposal was based on the search for a simple and understandable language for the audience. To this end, the contemporary reading aimed to approach comedy. An actor and an actress play different characters, with an interpretation that is somewhere between gestural and textual. In each scene, one of the characters operated as the white-faced clown, and the other as Augusto. The rehearsals were based on the creation of a score of actions for each scene, and a very clear importance of the elements and themes to be dealt with. A third character, the light, appeared in one of the scenes as a reference to the scenographic context we were talking about. Finally, after four rehearsals of the whole text, and a dress rehearsal, there was a performance with an audience that closed the process.
With this kind of project, the staging is always susceptible to mistakes or difficulties that must be solved live in front of the audience. The success of the performance lies in the students’ ability to maintain their character or their action even if conditions change due to unexpected events. Once the scene has begun, it has to continue, and the way to evaluate it is precisely the maintenance of that action in front of the audience, whatever happens.
Credits[edit]
| This learning method was made by: | Rosa Fernández Cruz, Felisa de Blas, Almudena López Villalba |
| Institution: | Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid (RESAD) |
| Thanks to: | Staff and students at RESAD who created and performed the Dialogues that inspired this teaching methodology. |